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13/12/01 - The girl who never grew
up
By Paul Harris and Christian Gysin
Daily Mail
THE jury who tried the killer of Sarah Payne had been
forced to listen to so much harrowing evidence. When
they returned a unanimous guilty verdict, they must
have supposed their ordeal was over.
But then came the evidence that shocked them even more
than the many appalling facts of what Roy Whiting did
to eight-year-old Sarah. He had abducted and assaulted
a little girl once before, although in that case, his
victim survived. It was a revelation which reduced two
women jurors to tears and left others with their heads
in the hands.
They were told that Whiting had been jailed for just
four years for the 1995 abduction, and served only two
and a half. Police, probation officers and a psychiatrist
all warned that he would strike again. But, short of
keeping Whiting under a 24-hour watch, they had no way
of saving Sarah.
Last night, as Whiting began a life sentence, the shocking
revelation at Lewes Crown Court reopened the debate
about a justice system which lets such men continue
to commit such terrible crimes. It also renewed demands
for a 'Sarah's Law' which would give a community the
right to know when a paedophile is living in its midst.
Sarah's mother Sara, 32, said after the hearing: 'Let's
make sure that this stops happening time and time again.
'Why should it be on policemen's shoulders? This is
down to the Government.' Judge Richard Curtis made his
view of Whiting clear as he sentenced him to life and
said he would recommend he is never freed to claim another
victim.
'You are every parents' and every grandparents' nightmare
come true,' he said. The dramatic conclusion to a case
which touched public sympathy so deeply came alter more
than four weeks of the most bonifying evidence. whiting
abducted Sarah on July 1 last year, as she left a field
in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex, where she had been playing
with her sister and two brothers.
He drove her away in a van he had transformed into a
mobile prison, and, when he had finished with her, killed
her and buried her in a shallow grave some miles away.
Her body was not found for another 17 days, during which
her agonised parents Sara and Michael made repeated
TV appeals.
Car mechanic Whiting, who lived in nearby Littlehampton,
was a suspect immediately Sarah disappeared. But it
was not until 18 months later that painstaking forensic
examination found enough evidence for him to be charged.
Crucially, one of his hairs was discovered on Sarah's
shoe, found in a country lane by an alert woman motorist.
Police also found a petrol receipt in his van which
proved he had been near the spot where Sarah was buried
at on the evening she disappeared. The one fact that
was never put to the jury, after a ruling by the judge,
was the story of Whiting's carbon-copy abduction in
1995.
The jury did not know, either that the previous victim's
parents and young brother were sitting weeping in the
public gallery alongside the Paynes. Timothy Langdale,
QC, prosecuting, told the court Whiting had snatched
a nine-year-old girl in the Ifield area of Crawley,
West Sussex.
He threw her into the back of his dirty red Ford Sierra
and locked the doors, telling her to 'shut up' because
he had a knife. Mr Langdale said: 'The defendant told
the girl to take off her clothes. When she refused,
he produced a rope from his pocket and threatened to
tie her up. What he actually threatened was that he
would "tie her mouth up".
'She was then undressed and was subjected to a disgusting
sexual assault.' The similarity to the Sarah Payne case
was reinforced as Mr Langdale revealed that Whiting
bought the Sierra only a few days before the assault.
He had done the same with the white van that he used
to drive Sarah.
There had been cheers and shouts of 'Yes' as the jury
returned their unanimous verdicts following nine hours
of deliberation. Sara and Michael Payne embraced as
the verdicts were read out, and broke down in tears
as they reached out towards their sons Lee and Luke,
now 14 and 13.
The family hugged each other as the grim details of
Whiting's previous conviction were revealed. As Whiting
turned in the dock to be led down the steps to the cells,
Sarah's grandfather Terry Payne shouted; "I hope
you rot'. Whiting, dressed in a grey sweatshirt and
jeans, had shown no emotion as he was convicted and
sentenced.
The judge spent five minutes delivering one of the most
withering verbal assaults that anyone could remember
in a murder trial. He told Whiting: It is important
in ordinary life that children are allowed to have some
freedom by their parents and others to learn self-reliance
and enjoy their childhood ... You exploited this for
your own abnormal sexual desires.
'You took this little girl away in a few moments. I
am satisfied you were looking for such a little child
on the that evening on the South Coast. 'It is ludicrous
to suggest that you needed that van for your job. It
was a moving prison for Sarah and anyone else that you
might have caught. 'You are indeed an evil man. You
are in no way mentally unstable.
I have seen you for a month and in my view you are a
glib and cunning liar.' There was just one moment when
Whiting reacted to what he was hearing - when the judge
make an order for this van to be seized and destroyed.
He also ordered that £500 from public funds would
be awarded the motorist Deborah Bray who found the shoe
and gave it to the police.
CPS lawyer Alison Saunders praised the bravery of witnesses
who gave evidence, 'While nothing can bring back Sarah,
justice has been done with the conviction of Roy Whiting
for her murder,' she said.
Lessons from tragedy
HOME Office Minister Beverley Hughes said last night
that the Government will use the case to learn lessons
about protecting the public. In response to calls for
'Sarah's law*, she said measures had already been taken
and that more will be done.
In the aftermath of the murder, Ministers refused demands
for a public register of child abusers but said police
would publish the number of offenders in their area
and the precautions taken. Paedophiles can be supervised
for up to ten years after prison and the number of treatment
programmes in jails has increased. |
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